#Lewis is still around $300Mn and he hasn't even retired yet

[topnotchquark]

Behind F1's Velvet Curtain

This article by Kate Wagner on her INEOS sponsored trip to the Austin GP at COTA last year was commissioned by Road and Track magazine and then taken down. Presumably because Kate has was pretty staunch in her opinions about what was essentially a paid trip.

It is exactly the kind of thing I have wanted to read about the felt experience of the money business of F1. It doesn't get into technicalities and does not produce any spreadsheets for reference. It's just, her experience of the presence of wealth in the sport.

She starts off by talking about how she has been covering cycling and NASCAR for a while now and both of those, in comparison, are scrappier sports with smaller sponsors and cheaper tickets.

What I also especially loved was how fascinated she was with the cars themselves, and how they seem like a true marvel of human engineering. She almost described the cars like these alien beasts that came into this dimension out of nowhere and were being constantly monitored and dueled with to furnish wins and glory (and shareholder value for sponsors).

I think I always had an understanding of the weird myth making surrounding F1 and the kind of media attention it attracts, but someone like Kate (who I have loved reading for a while now) putting it into perspective really made it click for me. This sport thrives off of the kind of cocoon it has built around it and understands exactly the certain exclusiveness it needs to maintain to keep the story alive.

Anyway, give it a read, especially because Road and Track is trying to bury it to not piss off sponsors.

#I think matt oxley was talking about how motogp has been struggling with money and hence dorna is trying to woo the American market #and the american tech sponsors #but bikes don't require as much data driven performance engineering as f1 cars do #Ducati is probably leading the operation in this regard because they have audi behind them #anyway I knew motogp does not produce the same level of wealth but I still decided to check numbers #Marc's net worth is $25Mn and he is arguably the best driver of his generation with enough sponsors behind him #Max's net worth in comparison is $165Mn easily over 6 times that of Marc #Vale's net worth is $200Mn but he is still somewhat of an outlier because his popularity far outweighs that of motogp itself #Lewis is still around $300Mn and he hasn't even retired yet #Schumacher was around $800Mn #I know net worth is a very stupid number to consider but driver net worth is an easy way to translate impact ig #the current Max to Mercedes rumours caused Merc valuation to rise by $11Bn #Billion! 11 of them! #honestly I frequently get desensitized to money just purely as a number because I am exposed to businesses with large valuations but #I still wanted a moment to reconsider how much money rides on this sport #and how that ties to how rich people function #just made me remember that Ocon is the last driver from a working class background #Fernando and Lewis are the only other with working class beginnings and both of them are over 35 and ridiculously talented #its not a sport for regular people to break into #Vale also started with karts and had to shift to bikes #anyway I love Kate Wagner please read this #and talk to me about money and F1 #Kate wagner #f1 #formula 1 #road and track magazine #lewis hamiton #mercedes amg petronas f1 team #Mercedes #INEOS